For the record, there's no trophy where a National Hockey League team gets to inscribe the names of their general manager and scouts and players for winning the off-season.
If there was such a trophy, it would be small and likely made of popsicle sticks because winning the off-season is something akin to going undefeated in pre-season; it's better than the alternative but in the grand scheme of things, it means little.
And the only time you really find out if you did actually win the off-season, the focus is on more tangible things like playoff positioning and the possibility or probability of making a run at the Stanley Cup.
But, just for argument sake, if there was such an award handed out every July, is there any doubt the Dallas Stars would be at least a finalist if not the runaway winner?
"Not many red flags at all really," offered one longtime NHLer and professional scout. "Good job by their staff to recognize weaknesses and addressing them nicely with their moves. Never an exact science but I like them for the most part."
When you take a 30-point dip in the standings from one year to the next as the Stars did and fall (plummet? Nose-dive?) from Central Division champs to being a playoff afterthought by Christmas, it would be an understatement to suggest this off-season was critical to a team hungry to climb back to the elite status it knew for years in the 1990s.
Job well done
The moves orchestrated by GM Jim Nill are now well-known and can be followed in a domino-like fashion beginning with the hiring (re-hiring?) of head coach Ken Hitchcock in April, returning him to the post where he had his finest moment winning the Stanley Cup in 1999 and returning to the Final the following year.
Two-time Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop was acquired and signed to a six-year deal with an annual cap hit under $5 million to fill a gaping hole in net.
Top four defenseman Marc Methot was acquired for a second-round draft pick in 2020 and a fringe prospect and is expected to play big minutes, most likely with offensive project John Klingberg.
Hard-nosed, two-way center Martin Hanzal and talented right wing Alexander Radulov were both signed as unrestricted free agents to deals that will cost the Stars $4.75 million annually for three years for Hanzal and $6.25 million per season against the salary cap for five years for Radulov.
"Really like the Methot move," the scout said. "Steadied their back end. Bishop also helps to solidify between the pipes which has been issue for number of seasons now."
Talk to coaches, GMs, scouts, observers and there are few naysayers when it comes to the dramatic reshaping of the Stars team, and they are most often mentioned with teams like Arizona, Calgary and the New York Rangers as having made the most impactful off-season moves.
"I like what they have done," said another longtime scout and former NHLer. "Big upgrade in the net. Bishop is a goal against (per) game better than what they had."
"I'm a big Methot fan," he added. "He will be a steady and reliable 20min/night (guy). Radulov is a unique player. He combines size, reach, skill, play-making ability and energy. Hope he can stay motivated. I think he'll like Dallas a lot and Dallas will like him. I'm not a fan of the big center, but he does take up space up the middle of the ice."
"They spent a lot but they spent wisely," the scout concluded. "I think the underlying issue will be where the leadership comes from. They will be a team to watch."
If there is a question when you make the kind of seismic changes the Stars did in the off-season, there will always be a question of fit.
Can Methot have the same kind of impact on Klingberg that he did playing with Erik Karlsson in Ottawa? Or does he end up playing with another young, skilled defender like Julius Honka?
If Hanzal is going to play big minutes as a second or hybrid third line center, where does that leave the center-deep roster? Does Jason Spezza move to the wing? If not Spezza, who?
Does Radulov become the perfect fit with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn?
We recall two summers ago the unbridled optimism that greeted Phil Kessel's acquisition by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Would he score 50 goals playing with Sidney Crosby? Or Evgeni Malkin? Nope.
The Penguins struggled and ended up firing head coach Mike Johnston before Kessel settled in playing mostly with Nick Bonino and Carl Hagelin. Two Stanley Cups later Kessel's worth to the Pens is hard to calculate, but it was a process.
It may be with the Stars and Radulov.
"Radulov on the PP!" wrote one longtime NHL executive and scout. "Methot, big minutes. Honka and others up from Texas to stay. Hitch's experience can pull them together quickly. Fun to watch."
No doubt the players play but getting them in the right position to play most effectively will fall to Hitchcock who has already assembled a detailed plan for training camp and pre-season games. That plan means that he and his newly-formed coaching staff that includes former Star forward Stu Barnes, longtime defensive specialist Rick Wilson, Curt Fraser who remains from Lindy Ruff's staff in Dallas and goaltending coach Jeff Reese can spend their time starting in mid-September focusing on the individual players, their personalities, and where they fit best.
"Jim and I had a lot of talks on 'this is what it's going to take to make the playoffs in the Central Division,'" Hitchcock said recently.
"We both talked in terms of not the skill we were adding but the compete level we were adding and we both felt that in order to stay afloat in the Central Division, no matter what your skill set, was you had to really amp up your competitive level," the veteran coach said.
Hitchcock understands that even if Nill has accomplished a great deal since the end of the regular season the challenge remains significant moving forward.
"Jim did an unreal job of filling in the spots, but both of us realized just filling in the spots allows us to be competitive on paper and now it falls on everybody to build a team," Hitchcock said. "I think we both recognize that no matter what talent level we have is that we both have to really dig in our heels to build a team here."
Former NHLer and longtime national analyst Keith Jones has no reservations about the work done by Nill in the off-season what it should yield next spring.
"To me they're a playoff team," Jones said. And as Nashville, which entered the playoffs last spring as the second wild card team in the Western Conference and advanced to within two wins of a Stanley Cup reinforced to all NHL teams, once that playoff door is open anything can happen.
"It's a very quick turnaround and without question I feel a lot differently about the club than when the season ended," Jones added.
Jones is especially enthused by Bishop's acquisition, suggesting his ability to handle the puck will help jump start the team's transition game.
"That's a big change," he said. "That's going to be a big help for some of their less-skilled puck movers on the back end. They'll be less exposed to some of the weaknesses of their game."
So, where will the parade route start next June?
Okay. So that's the danger of off-season excitement, it can soon be blunted by in-season injury, underachievement and just not being good enough.
But the reasons for optimism in Dallas extend beyond just the new faces.
It's how they were managed without sacrificing the future.
The Golden Knights initially wanted Dallas's third overall pick at the draft in Chicago in exchange for the sixth pick and Methot.
"But Jim Nill said no way," said Dallas president Jim Lites.
Instead the Stars selected Miro Heiskanen with the third pick and then moved up from 29th to 26th to select Jake Oettinger, who is considered the top goaltending prospect in the 2017 draft class.
Beyond preserving the future, Nill managed to overhaul his roster without putting the team in salary cap jail. With the departure of Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya, Jordie Benn, Cody Eakin via the expansion draft, and the buyout of Antti Niemi from last year's roster, the new additions are basically dollar in dollar out, Lites said.
"We had to front-load a bunch of the money, which is where the owner comes in because the owner front-loaded a bunch of those contracts in order to make them attractive to the free agents, because that's what's happening," explained Lites who is the conduit between Nill and owner Tom Gaglardi in establishing a budget for the team.
But with Gaglardi's support, the team has managed, on paper at least, to position itself for a significant bounce back after a disastrous 2016-17 campaign.
There are more subtle elements to the Stars' off-season.
With Radulov signed long-term, assuming he's a good fit, the expectation is he will evolve into a role model and mentor to talented prospects Denis Gurianov, 20, and the erstwhile Val Nichushkin, 22, who is back in Russia. Radek Faksa, 23, signed a very manageable three-year deal worth $2.2 million annually and has a strong connection to Hanzal.
"I will say that I've seldom, if ever, had a better off-season from a management perspective of improving the team both through the change in the coaching staff and the acquisition of veteran players at literally no expense in youth," Lites said.
The work isn't over yet for Nill and the organization.
There's a log jam on the back end so Nill will need to move a body or two there. And then there's the actual games to be played, of course.
For teams like Dallas who have earned the dubious off-season 'champs' honors, those days can't come soon enough.
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. You can follow Scott on Twitter @OvertimeScottB.
